PVP and Gameplay Feedback
Most of my experience comes from Turf. I have also played smaller game modes where imbalances are easier to notice.
Movement: Walking while shooting is too slow. This is especially so with low HP classes like Sunflower, Imp, Acorn, Rose, Nightcap, and Scientist.
In the healer's case this makes it harder for healers to stay with their team in order to give them constant heals, and healers are too slow to strafe.
Overall, low HP classes suffer because they are too easy to hit. Bunny hopping should not be a requirement to dodge with characters that have such low HP. That should not be how they are designed in a Class based shooter with a higher TTK.
This slow movement reduces the gameplay to hiding and corner peeking to do well. Is this a cover based shooter, or a movement shooter? It seems like a movement shooter with all the sprinting and jumping, which is what I would prefer, but the slow movement confuses that.
Why even have different Health Pools between classes if they are all going to walk about the same speed? This is why I play Tanks more.
Aim Assist: Heavy Aim assist is too helpful. Holds the hand of players by pointing the Reticle on the enemy when they zoom in on the enemy while looking in their general direction. Basically, it is like an Aimbot.
All-star is underwhelming as a Tank and Defense Class. He does too little damage at close to mid range for being so slow and big.
Football cannon: Feels terrible now that it only does 7-8 damage. Just a tiny bit better than Food soldier, and its not fun to fight high mobility plants with such low damage per shot.
Rev Up mechanic: The time it takes to start firing is an important part of balancing the Football cannon. If All-Star gets more damage like before he was nerfed, I would not mind a longer rev up time. Right now, Football Cannon feels more like an Assault rifle rather than a minigun.
Imp punt - Without High Fuse, Imp punt is too unreliable to be effective. Even when you land a direct hit with Imp Punt, most of the time it will bounce off and do 15 damage instead because the Max damage range is so small. It could use more damage, but my main concern is that it is way too hard to land the Max 100 damage. I would suggest that the Max damage covers a bigger area.
It is also very annoying that zombie teammates can block my Imp Punt. Same can be said with Chili Bean Bomb being blocked by teammates.
Dummy shield - A little too weak on HP or the Shield deactivates too quickly. I understand that Shields aren't very good at long range fights because of their being no Fall-off damage, so they are more of a mid - close range tool and fall back option. Even so, Dummy Shield still feels a little weak in close ranges.
I also wouldn't mind Tackle getting changes or buffs because it feels like an inferior version of Spin Dash in many ways. I would be fine if Tackle could move through enemies again.
Foot Soldier and Corn and probably Imp too: Z1-Assault Blaster, Cob Busters, and Imp Blasters / Z-mech's primary aren’t very fun to use. Unlike GW2, these guns have a very high rate of fire with low damage per shot.
These weapons aren't fun because they rely on landing so many shots. There are 2 problems with this:
1. Because of the high Jump height and Sprinting, you have to constantly be hitting your enemy with pin point accuracy while they move fast or are jumping up and down. But with Nightcap or Peashooter for example, this isn't as big of a problem because their weapons rewards well placed shots, rather than spraying shots. It doesn't feel good when a player puts effort into aiming and lands multiple hits only to not get the kill.
2. Having to shoot an enemy so many times risks making weapons feel weak. Having a high rate of fire does not solve this, especially when the movement is so fast when jumping or sprinting.
I suggest a higher damage per shot, and a lower rate of fire, while still making these weapons feel like automatic weapons. GW1 and 2 have done it, so can BFN.
In Imp's case, I would love to see Imp with a shotgun too. I would make a nice sidegrade like Shogun Guard.
Scientist, Electric Slide, and Rose still have too much Survivability:
- Scientist is basically invincible with his instant Warp, even more so with the Sticky Healy Thingy change.
- Electric Slide’s outta fight activates instantly.
- Rose’s Arcane Enigma activates instantly.
There is little to no risk of dying as these characters. Their defensive abilities activate too quickly to allow any punishment from the enemy.
Rose having a 60 sec cooldown still is not enough to justify that she can easily run away with Arcane Enigma. As a nerf, all it really does is make her less aggressive when flanking.
Arcane Enigma in GW2 was very balanced because it had a wind up before activating. Same thing with GW Warp.
I also don’t know why abilities that make a player invincible allows them to contest points. Contesting points is one of a Tank class's big roles, but instead you have Supports and Attack Classes who contest a point more easily with a press of a button, and easily wastes time for the enemy team. Without even death timers, I don’t see how this could be a balanced feature.
Space Cadet and Space Station:
Has nothing to justify that she can transform instantly. This can be exploited in the middle of a fight, especially in close quarters.
Also, there still seems to be lingering invincibility after Transformation.
Ejecting from Space Station has a really low height. If your Space Station is low and under fire, and you eject, you will probably die anyway.
Team up classes: Oak and Space Station
Maybe Acorn passenger without armor maybe a bad thing, but I am not sure.
I also think shield break was an unnecessary ability for a defense class, and I have not really noticed it in pvp.
Acorn Passengers weapons: I like that shots are fast enough that I can just point and shoot, but I still feel like it is hard to aim it.
Space Station’s shields are arguably a little weak. Maybe a small HP buff to them?
Citron: Naval Laser
No zooming in, can’t be canceled, and you can’t choose when to fire after activating. Overall, the lack of control makes this ability a big commitment and very difficult to use effectively.
Imp: Underpowered in some, OP in others, and kind of dumb.
First of all, what is Imp's role even supposed to be? The pause menu doesn't really explain. The way I saw it in GW2 was that he was a Flanking class who could use Mech to make strong offensive pushes.
My main problem is Z-mech. Z-mech is barely anything more than an ability that gives extra health and explodes. It feels like a gimmick.
1. Z-mech's primary feels awful (again, high rate of fire and low damage per shot) and it overheats very quickly. In my opinion, it doesn't do good damage either.
It has no armor, no health regeneration, and it dies in seconds because it is so easy to challenge at mid to long range. It is barely an offensive tool, and feels more like an awkward defense tool.
2. The instant invincibility from Robo-Call combined with Explosive Escape ENCOURAGES Imp players to make dumb plays and spawn Z-mechs in front of the enemy team. Might as well since Z-mech is useless for anything else.
80s action hero:
A character with a Charge shot who is way too good at Sniping. This has been a problem with charge shot characters since GW2.
I think he reaches Max Charge damage too quickly.
(Damage Fall-off would also solve this)
Certain Upgrades:
Rapid Fire, Spin Class, Ripcord, Hardened, Epiphany, Defibrillated.
Most of these upgrades either break a class design or a design of an ability, or they just literally make you better at the game.
Spin Class: Breaks the design of All-Star as a high damage mid range fighter by almost complete getting rid of Spin up time of the Football cannon. As long as this upgrades reduces Rev Time without any drawbacks, All-Star will NEVER be balanced.
Hardened: Acorn has a very small hitbox and is difficult to hit. Solo Acorn should never have over 75 HP by default.
Epiphany and Defibrillated: Allows you to regenerate HP while Invincible (while in Arcane Enigma or outta fight). This is absolutely broken because not only can you retreat safely while invincible and regenerating HP, it can single handedly turn small fights into your favor because you now have more HP. All with just one button press.
